A review by bethcgreenberg
Black Gate Tales by Paul Draper

5.0

I'm not normally a fan of horror, but having read and immensely enjoyed some of the author's other work, I decided to stretch my comfort zone a bit. Paul Draper's Black Gate Tales transports the reader with elegant language and exotic settings to a separate place and time where the gruesome twists and turns feel chillingly possible, even inevitable. Much like the gorgeous cover that drew me in, each of the short stories promises a certain darkness that is part and parcel to the natural beauty of the world - a force, the narrator seems to be saying, that cannot be defeated and may not even be worth fighting. The author makes great use of natural detail (individual bird calls or spider biology, for example) to bring the reader up close and intimate with the narrator's sensual experiences- whether she wishes to be or not! My favorite story by far was the second, "Mrs. Pendleton's Corpse," which had me laughing out loud with her shouty caps way of bossing around the village undertaker. This is a great collection well worth the read savored over a week's time or gobbled up in a single sitting.